Film Nerd News #7

Welcome back ladies (I’m still not sure that’s even remotely close to being true or not) and gentlemen. Got a case of the Monday’s? Well, iGR‘s Film Nerd News (or FNN, as I like to call it) is here to help, with all the best movie news of the week! This week features some bad news for a big franchise but we also have another edition of Wacky Hollywood Adventures! Anyways, why don’t we just dig in?

Zoe Saldana (Avatar) has entered talks to take on the role of Gamora for Marvel‘s upcoming Guardians of the Galaxy film. She joins the already cast Chris Pratt (Parks & Recreation) as Peter Quill and former WWE Superstar David Bautista (The Man With the Iron Fists) as Drax the Destroyer. I can’t really comment on how well Saldana fits into the role but she’s a fine actress so I have no complaints. That leaves two roles of the Guardians remaining an unsurprisingly, they’re the hardest roles to cast since one’s a talking raccoon (Rocket Raccoon) and the other is a giant talking tree (Groot). There were rumors that Marvel was looking into the availability of Jim Carrey (The Truman Show) and Adam Sandler (Grown Ups) at one point and it was thought to be for at least one (maybe both) of the now remaining roles but given the nature of their casting so far, that doesn’t seem very likely. Still, it’ll be interesting to see who they cast because their success with those roles could end up making or breaking the film.

So much for Brad Pitt‘s (Seven) retirement plans, huh? About a year ago, he said he’d retire from acting by 50 but the dude keeps signing on roles that I don’t think that will end up happening. That’s good news though because it would be a shame to lose Pitt’s talent. Described by writer/director David Ayer (End of Watch) as a film that will revolutionize tank warfare in films, Fury, centers on the five man crew of an American tank battling a desperate Nazi army. The premise definitely sounds interesting and considering Ayer’s history of writing engaging and charismatic characters, it definitely has the makings of a must-see film.

4/4– Audiences may not be but director Justin Lin is kind of tired of THE FAST AND THE FURIOUS

Much like the studio (Universal), I just assumed that director Justin Lin (Fast Five) would just continue to churn out sequels to the now very-profitable franchise but news broke earlier this week that that won’t be the case as Lin has dropped out of directing the seventh installment of the franchise. There are some conflicting reports as to why he dropped out but from it looks like, it’s either Fast & Furious fatigue or he wasn’t sure he could deliver a quality product in time for the studio’s desired release date. I imagine it ended up being a bit of both because supposedly the studio wants the next one released sometime in 2014 which is a fairly quick turnaround considering the sixth one hasn’t even been released yet (May 24, 2013). The interesting part in all of this is that the original plan was to film 6 and 7 back-to-back so it’s just sort of strange that he would drop out after being given a slight break. That said, the studio seems to be wasting no time in finding his replacement because Brad Furman (The Lincoln Lawyer), Jeff Wadlow (Kick-Ass 2) and Harald Zwart (The Karate Kid 2010) have already been rumored as in the running.

Admittedly I’m not a very big fan of horror films but I’m always willing to give one produced and/or directed by Guillermo del Toro (Hellboy) because he’s one of the greatest visionaries currently going in Hollywood. Then it’s no wonder that he’s been able to land an absolutely crazy cast so far: Emma Stone (The Amazing Spider-Man) and Charlie Hunnam (Sons of Anarhcy) were already cast but then this week, he added Benedict Cumberbatch (Sherlock) and Jessica Chastain (Zero Dark Thirty). Now, two of those names (Hunnam & Chastain) aren’t that surprising considering both have now worked with del Toro before (the upcoming Pacific Rim and the del Toro-produced Mama, respectively) but still, an overall cast that includes those four is pretty impressive, especially so when you consider the genre. Like I said, I’m not a big fan of the genre but there’s no denying that big stars and top-notch actors don’t tend to sign up for films in the genre so it’s pretty crazy he was able to land a cast like he has.

You remember Jane Got a Gun, right? I would hope so because it’s the film I’ve talked about almost incessantly in these articles for the past few weeks. Well, it appears that the film is now back on track after some of the craziness died down because they were able to land their villain and it’s none other than Bradley Cooper (Silver Linings Playbook)! The resolve that the producers have shown (I’m sure it doesn’t hurt that one of them is also the star but still) in getting this film back on track is ridiculous and when you consider that Cooper is coming off an Oscar-nominated performance, it’s even more impressive they were able to land him on such short notice. Still, it’s good news that this film has been able to weather the storms it’s gone through because even though they lost talented actors in Michael Fassbender (X-Men: First Class) and Jude Law (Sherlock Holmes) they were able to replace them with actors that just-as-talented in Cooper and Joel Edgerton (Warrior). In the end, it looks like the film might even be stronger as a result of all the turmoil and that’s incredibly rare these days.

Well that’s all for this week’s edition of FNN! Be on the lookout for new additions of TVNN and Trailer Tuesday soon! And as always, make sure you follow me on Twitter at @kyle_igr but more importantly, the site itself @igresponsibly.